A Primer On Drugs (And A Little About Zombies)

When I hear the words ‘bath salts’, my mind immediately takes me to a candlelit bathroom with Enya playing in the background. I do not immediately think of the undead terrorizing and eating homeless people. Unfortunately, the soulless chemists and dealers have done it again and created a substance with a benign name and malignant qualities. This post will serve as your quick in-service on the whats and whys of the drug world. If information is power then this will be your gamma ray exposure (Hulk reference- Yay Avengers!).

Methamphetamine: Meth is a psychostimulant and sympathomimetic drug. In laymen’s term, the drug makes you produce an alert state through the mimicking of naturally produced neurotransmitters like epinephrine. It directly stimulates the reward system in your brain causing euphoria thus making it highly addictive. Meth users are known to have poor skin, teeth and lose weight. This drug is usually smoked, inhaled or injected.

Heroin: Heroin is an opiate made from the opium poppy. In the old days, opium was smoked for a hallucinogenic high. In the same family of drugs you will find morphine. Heroin was created specifically to cure people of morphine addiction. Heroine is normally injected, smoked or inhaled and produces a euphoric effect sometimes likened to an orgasm. Heroin also makes the user constipated, dehydrated due to sweating and makes the user sleepy. Risk of addiction: Very High!

Crack Cocaine: Crack is a freebase form of cocaine. Cocaine is taken and cooked with a base, usually baking soda, to form a concentrated form which is usually smoked. The high is intense euphoria. The users tend to have no appetite, insomnia, increased energy and can be paranoid. The inexpensive nature and ease with which to make crack has made it the common drug for the inner city. Psychosis caused by large doses of this drug can cause delusions and hallucinations ranging from being infested with parasites to the point the user can end up scratching themselves until they bleed.

Ecstasy (MDMA:) Ecstasy (MDMA) is a semisynthetic psychedelic entactogen of the phenethylamine family (that’s a mouthful!) Ecstasy is a hallucinogenic that acts more like a stimulant and produces few visual. It is a disinhibiter that allows the user to do things that they would normally not do such as have sex indiscriminately and dance. The psychedelic nature of the drug makes users believe that their sensations are heightened. Users report being extremely thirsty due to the fact that their core body temperature has risen by as much as 5 degrees. In some cases, users actually ‘cook their brain’ and can die with their body temperature continually rising long after their death.

Bath Salts: As Paul mentioned yesterday, Bath Salts are a designer drug combination of three synthetic compounds: 3, 4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), mephedrone, and methylone. All three of them are in the same chemical category of cathinones and all are very strong and very addictive stimulants. They can be inhaled, smoked or injected. Bath Salts are similar to Ecstasy in that their effects are euphoria, relaxation, a sense of warmth and well-being. The problem with Bath Salts is that the good feeling lasts a short time before the deleterious effects kick in. The bad sides of the drug are as follows:

extremely high body temperature

elevated heart rate, blood pressure, and pulse

extreme sweating

panic attacks

sleep deprivation

vivid hallucinations

extreme paranoia

suicidal thoughts

hostility or aggression

strange eye movements

This makes the zombie flesh eater in Miami a lot more understandable. No, Bath Salts do not make you crave flesh but the aggression mixed with vivid hallucinations can explain such bizarre behavior.

Look, drugs are bad and the advent of zombie like creatures attacking people in broad day light and growling at police officers who need to shoot them several times so that they can stop eating the face off of a hobo may bring people to realize the real need to discuss drugs with their kids. Let’s arm them with info and smarts. Do not play ostrich. Drugs are out there. Just in case, go to Sports Authority or Dick’s and purchase some aluminum bats. Wood splinters and can break easily on several zombie heads.